2.4. Contraventions of Scottish criminal law are divided for
statistical purposes into crimes and offences. The term "crime" is
generally used for the more serious criminal acts; the less serious
are termed "offences". The distinction is made only for statistical
reporting purposes and has no impact on how the police investigate
reports of criminal activity. The "seriousness" of the offence is
generally related to the maximum sentence that can be imposed. This
distinction has been consistently used in the Recorded Crime in
Scotland bulletins since publication began in 1983 and, prior to
this, in the Criminal statistics publication dating back to the
1920s.

A further distinction, although not absolute, is that the
numbers of offences recorded by the police generally tends to be
affected more by police activity and operational decisions than the
numbers of crimes.

2.5. In general, this statistical bulletin covers the ten year
period from 2006-07 to 2015-16, the entirety of which is subject to
the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (
SCRS)
introduced in 2004-05. The
SCRS
has helped maintain a consistent approach to recording crime and is
maintained and developed by the Scottish Crime Recording Board. A
copy of the manual can be accessed from the Board's webpages:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRecordedCrime/SCRB/SCRSmanual.

2.6. Crimes are presented in this bulletin against the year in
which they are recorded by the police. Not all crimes are reported
to, and recorded by, the police immediately following their
occurrence. As such each year's figures on police recorded crime
will include a proportion of crimes committed in earlier years. The
basis on which we receive the data means we are generally unable to
identify crimes committed in earlier years.

2.7. The Police Service of Scotland (referred to throughout this
report as Police Scotland) is responsible for operational policing
in Scotland and is held to account by the Scottish Police
Authority. The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 changed
the policing landscape in Scotland, replacing the previous eight
police forces, the Scottish Police Services Authority and the
Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency from 1 April 2013. The
statistics set out in this bulletin cover the third year following
the establishment of Police Scotland.

2.8. The
Scottish
Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) 2014-15 provides a
complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics.
The survey provides information on the criminal justice system,
people's experience of civil justice problems and people's
perception of crime.

The
SCJS
also provides an estimate of the proportion of crimes not reported
to the police. In 2014-15, it was estimated that 38% of crimes, as
defined by the
SCJS,
were reported to the police.

The survey also provides estimates of progress for two national
indicators in the Scottish Government's National Performance
Framework, namely:

Additional coverage on the
SCJS
is featured in the Data Comparisons segments throughout the
bulletin, located toward the end of each crime or offence group
section. A more detailed analysis on the comparisons between
recorded crime and the
SCJS
is provided in
Chapter 5.

2.9. There have been no major legislative changes throughout
2015-16 which impact on the comparability of the statistics.

2.10. The
UK Statistics
Authority (
UKSA)
published an
assessment
report on Recorded Crime in Scotland in July 2014. The report
stated that the
UKSA
"cannot at present confer National Statistics status on these
statistics".

As a result of this, the 2013-14 and 2014-15 statistical
bulletins on Recorded Crime in Scotland were both published as
Official Statistics. The
UKSA
assessment report pointed to improvements that could be made to
ensure these statistics meet the highest standards of
trustworthiness, quality and value as set out in the Code of
Practice - with the aim of eventually re-designating these
statistics as National Statistics. Since the July 2014 report a
range of actions have been taken forward by the Scottish Government
and others to meet these requirements (with further information on
this presented throughout the bulletin - including in
Annex 2 on Data Quality). Following this
work, the
UKSA
re-visited the designation of these statistics in September 2016
and concluded that the police recorded crime statistics can be
designated as National Statistics, which means that they meet the
highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value. As
such, the Recorded Crime in Scotland statistics are again being
published as National Statistics, beginning with this 2015-16
publication.

The statistics on recorded crime clear up rates (
Chapter 4) will remain published as Official
Statistics (i.e. on the same basis as in 2013-14 and 2014-15).
HMICS
propose to scope out an audit of clear-up data and pilot an audit
methodology in 2017, with a view to providing the public and other
stakeholders with assurance about the reliability of clear up
rates. The
UKSA
will re-visit the statistical designation of this information once
HMICS
have carried out this audit and the
Scottish
Crime Recording Board has considered any implications for the
quality of these data.